Review of “Suicide Squad”
- Jim
- Aug 21, 2016
- 2 min read
* * * B
After Batman vs. Superman, my expectations for Suicide Squad were low. I enjoyed the trailer, but found the amount of hype being pumped out to promote the film relentless. Fortunately, they didn’t manage to completely spoil everything. There have been some overly negative reviews of Suicide Squad. While it was not great, it was very entertaining, much better than Batman vs.. Superman. I’d put it at least on par with X-men Apocalypse.
Will Smith does a good job with Deadshot (sometime leader of the squad in the comic books). Margo Robby kills as Harley Quinn, easily the best written character. In the film, the squad is led by Rick Flag (Joel “Holder” Kinnaman), and his romance with June Moon, the human alter ego of the powerful Enchantress, is one of the two love stories that drive the plot of the film, the other being the story of Harley and the Joker, played by Jared Leto.
The plot is simple, the action fun. Deadshot, a stone cold assassin, and Diablo (Jay Hernandez), a fiery gang banger whose out of control powers caused him to kill his loved ones, and subsequently swear off violence, have excellent tension. I had my doubts about Flag, and he at times seems redundant, but overall, he worked better as the leader of the squad than Deadshot did in the comics.
There are a lot of other characters. Amanda Walker (Viola Davis), who put the squad together, is solid. I really liked Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), who replaces the annoying King Shark from the comic books. Less interesting characters Captain Boomerang and Katana fill out the squad. It might have been better if they had been cut and their screen time used to further develop the main characters, but they didn’t detract from the film.
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